Event ID 259 — Remote Desktop Session Host Listener Availability

Applies To: Windows Server 2008 R2

The listener component runs on the RD Session Host server and is responsible for listening for and accepting new Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) client connections, thereby allowing users to establish new remote sessions on the RD Session Host server. There is a listener for each Remote Desktop Services connection that exists on the RD Session Host server. Connections can be created and configured by using the Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration tool.

Event Details

Resolve

Restart the listener or increase available system resources

To resolve this issue, attempt to restart the listener on the RD Session Host server. If restarting the listener is not successful, attempt to increase available system resources, such as memory, on the RD Session Host server.

To perform these tasks, refer to the following sections.

Restart the listener

To restart the listener, use either of the following methods on the RD Session Host server.

To perform these procedures, you must have membership in the local Administrators group, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

Method one

To stop and start the Remote Desktop Services service:

1. On the RD Session Host server, open the Services snap-in. To open the Services snap-in, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services.
2. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Yes.
3. In the Services pane, right-click Remote Desktop Services, and then click Restart.
4. If you are prompted about restarting other services, click Yes.
5. Confirm that the Status column for the Remote Desktop Services service displays Started.

Method two

To disable and enable Remote Connections:

1. On the RD Session Host server, start the System tool. To start the System tool, click Start, click Run, type control system and then click OK.

2. Under Tasks, click Remote settings.

3. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Yes.

4. In the System Properties dialog box, on the Remote tab, select the Don't allow connections to this computer option, and then click Apply.

5. In the System Properties dialog box, select either of the following, depending on your environment:

   • Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop (less secure)
   • Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication (more secure)

   For more information about the two options, click Help me choose.

6. Click OK to close the System Properties dialog box.

Increase available system resources

One way to increase the amount of available memory is to determine if there are any programs or processes running on the RD Session Host server that can be closed. Use Task Manager to determine which processes are using the most memory, and to end those processes.

To perform this procedure, you must have membership in the local Administrators group, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To free up memory on the RD Session Host server by using Task Manager:

1. On the RD Session Host server, right-click an empty area of the taskbar, and then click Start Task Manager.
2. Click the Processes tab.
3. Make sure that the User Name and Memory (Private Working Set) columns appear. If they do not appear, on the View menu, click Select Columns, select the User Name and the Memory (Private Working Set) check boxes, and then click OK.
4. At the bottom of the tab, select the Show processes from all users check box.
5. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Yes.
6. To sort the processes by memory usage, click the Memory (Private Working Set) column header.
7. Determine if you can end any of the memory-intensive processes.
8. To end a process, click the process name, and then click End Process.
9. Click End Process to confirm that you want to end the process.

If you cannot free memory by using Task Manager, or if this issue still occurs after you try to free up memory, restart the RD Session Host server.

Verify

To verify that the listener on the RD Session Host server is working properly, use any of the following methods.

Note:  RDP-TCP is the default connection name and 3389 is the default RDP port. Use the connection name and port number specific to your RD Session Host server configuration.

Method one

Use an RDP client, such as Remote Desktop Connection, to establish a remote connection to the RD Session Host server.

Method two

Use the qwinsta tool to view the listener status on the RD Session Host server.

To use the qwinsta tool:

1. On the RD Session Host server, click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
2. At the command prompt, type qwinsta and then press ENTER.
3. The RDP-TCP session state should be Listen.

Method three

Use the netstat tool to view the listener status on the RD Session Host server.

To use the netstat tool:

1. On the RD Session Host server, click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
2. At the command prompt, type netstat -a and then press ENTER.
3. The entry for 0.0.0.0:3389 (TCP port 3389) should be Listening.

Method four

Use the telnet tool to connect to the RDP port on the RD Session Host server.

To use the telnet tool:

1. From another computer, click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.

2. At the command prompt, type telnet servername 3389, where servername is the name of the RD Session Host server, and then press ENTER.

   If telnet is successful, you will receive the telnet screen and a cursor.

   If telnet is not successful, you will receive this error:

   Connecting To servername...Could not open connection to the host, on port 3389: Connect failed

Related Management Information

Remote Desktop Session Host Listener Availability

Remote Desktop Services